Marriage and breakthrough Edward Hopper

road in maine (1914)

at forty-one, hopper received further recognition work. continued harbor bitterness career, later turning down appearances , awards. financial stability secured steady sales, hopper live simple, stable life , continue creating art in distinctive style 4 more decades.

his 2 on aisle (1927) sold personal record $1,500, enabling hopper purchase automobile, used make field trips remote areas of new england. in 1929, produced chop suey , railroad sunset. following year, art patron stephen clark donated house railroad (1925) museum of modern art, first oil painting acquired collection. hopper painted last self-portrait in oil around 1930. although josephine posed many of paintings, sat 1 formal oil portrait husband, jo painting (1936).

hopper fared better many other artists during great depression. stature took sharp rise in 1931 when major museums, including whitney museum of american art , metropolitan museum of art, paid thousands of dollars works. sold 30 paintings year, including 13 watercolors. following year participated in first whitney annual, , continued exhibit in every annual @ museum rest of life. in 1933, museum of modern art gave hopper first large-scale retrospective.

president obama views cobb s barns, south truro (top), , burly cobb s house, south truro, both ca. 1930–33, added oval office in 2014. (loan whitney museum.)

in 1930, hoppers rented cottage on cape cod in south truro, massachusetts. returned south truro every summer rest of lives, building summer house there in 1934. there, take driving trips other areas when edward needed search fresh material paint. in summers of 1937 , 38, hoppers spent extended sojourns on wagon wheels farm in south royalton, vermont, edward painted series of watercolors along white river. these scenes atypical among hopper s mature works, pure landscapes, devoid of architecture or human figures. first branch of white river (1938), in museum of fine arts, boston, well-known of hopper s vermont landscapes.

hopper productive through 1930s , 1940s, producing among many important works new york movie (1939), girlie show (1941), nighthawks (1942), hotel lobby (1943), , morning in city (1944). during late 1940s, however, suffered period of relative inactivity. admitted, wish paint more. sick of reading , going movies. during next 2 decades, health faltered, , had several prostate surgeries , other medical problems. but, in 1950s , 1960s, created several more major works, including first row orchestra (1951); morning sun , hotel railroad, both in 1952; , intermission in 1963.